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Impact of oil palm plantations on the structure of the agroforestry mosaic of La Gamba, southern Costa Rica: potential implications for biodiversity

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Abstract

Human activities often cause changes and homogenization in landscape structure. To investigate the impact of changing cultivation systems on structural and functional aspects of a tropical agroforestry system, we developed satellite based land cover maps of the La Gamba area in southwestern Costa Rica and refined them by mapping fine-scale linear landscape elements. Performing a landscape pattern analysis, we compared eight sections of the study area by landscape metrics. Furthermore we performed a Morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) for hypothetical non-forest, forest generalist and forest specialist species, and compared the current situation to a possible future scenario with double the area covered by oil palm plantations after a virtual conversion of other agricultural patches. The heterogeneous rural sections clearly differed from the homogeneous forests and especially pasture-dominated rural sections included many diverse, small and elongated patches, many linear landscape elements but few big plantations. According to the scenario with double the area covered by oil palm plantations, non-forest species lost large parts of their habitat, while forest species mainly lost corridors. The protection of natural landscape elements that support wildlife movement between forest areas is of major importance, particularly as the globally increasing cultivation of oil palm is significantly altering many tropical land mosaics, including the countryside of La Gamba. We propose the establishment of eight least cost path corridor routes in the study area to make the agricultural area pervious for wildlife.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Richard Hastik for his support in the least cost path calculations and to the farmers and landowners in La Gamba, who gave their permission to carry out field work on their properties. Furthermore, we are thankful for the research grant and the research scholarship (TOP Stipendium) granted to T.H by the University of Vienna and the federal state of Lower Austria respectively. This study was further supported by the project TransEcoNet (Transnational Ecological Networks), which is implemented through the Central Europe Programme co financed by ERDF and by the Association for supporting the Tropical Station La Gamba and the project Biological Corridor in the PN Piedras Blancas. The Tropenstation La Gamba was an excellent base from which to conduct field work. Research permission in Costa Rica was kindly issued by the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetation & Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Tamara Höbinger, Stefan Schindler & Thomas Wrbka

  2. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, 4485-661, Vairão, Portugal

    Stefan Schindler

  3. Department of Animal Biodiversity, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Benjamin S. Seaman

  4. Department of Structural and Functional Botany, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Anton Weissenhofer

  5. Tropical Station La Gamba, Postal 178, Golfito/Puntarenas, Costa Rica

    Anton Weissenhofer

Authors
  1. Tamara Höbinger
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  2. Stefan Schindler
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  3. Benjamin S. Seaman
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  4. Thomas Wrbka
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  5. Anton Weissenhofer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Schindler.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Fig. 6.

Fig. 6
figure 6

Illustration of the eight computed least cost corridor routes (corridor width = 100 m)

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Appendix 2

See Table 2.

Appendix 2 Lengths and coordinates of the start and endpoints of the corridor routes
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Höbinger, T., Schindler, S., Seaman, B.S. et al. Impact of oil palm plantations on the structure of the agroforestry mosaic of La Gamba, southern Costa Rica: potential implications for biodiversity. Agroforest Syst 85, 367–381 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-011-9425-0

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